1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to efficient computation in computer systems and more particularly to efficient computation associated with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).
2. Description of the Related Art
Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) has evolved into a mature public-key cryptosystem through extensive research on its underlying math, its security strength, and efficient implementations. ECC offers the smallest key size and the highest strength per bit of any known public-key cryptosystem. In addition, it allows for efficient computation in software as well as hardware implementations. This makes ECC a good choice for application in Internet security protocols such as SSL or IPsec. Furthermore, the computational efficiency of ECC can enable small devices ranging from cell phones, PDAs, smart cards down to embedded devices to execute strong public-key cryptography.
As an emerging alternative to the RSA algorithm, the United States government has adopted ECC for the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and specified elliptic curves for government and commercial use. Further standards have been defined by the standards bodies IEEE, ANSI, OMG, IETF and SECG.
Large numbers of secure connections/transactions initiated by a multitude of client devices impose a significant burden on servers executing security protocols. In particular, public-key cryptography (such as RSA or ECC operations) contributes to a large fraction of the computational load. Hence, improving public-key operations is an important goal to alleviate server load and therefore increase connection/transaction throughput.